I am about to purchase a Diamond MR77 so I can use my FT-60 in the car. Must be a magmount because I frequent parking garages for work. Anyway, I have a Diamond SX-200 SWR meter that will measure 2M, but not 440.

Since this is my first voyage into mobile 2M and measuring SWR on 2M, can I simply measure the SWR in FM mode? I have only done it in HF up til now on AM.

The original poster has a 4-5W HT, and a good quality mag mount that is already tuned for best performance on 2M and 440. Personally - and if the antenna is new - I wouldn't drag out a SWR meter to the car to test it. My resulting signal reports will let me know how well my 4-5W are hitting local stations/repeaters.

Change the equation, though, with different radio and/or antenna, then my answer might be different ... (grin)

The original poster has a 4-5W HT, and a good quality mag mount that is already tuned for best performance on 2M and 440. Personally - and if the antenna is new - I wouldn't drag out a SWR meter to the car to test it. My resulting signal reports will let me know how well my 4-5W are hitting local stations/repeaters.

Change the equation, though, with different radio and/or antenna, then my answer might be different ... (grin)

Clint K6LCS

I do not understand what you are saying. Are you saying that if it were the case that the SWR were high because of a defect or something, that it would not do damage do the HT because it is 5W?

I am using a 5W HT as of now. Will likely go to a higher wattage mobile later. Still, for the time it takes to check SWR, it is kind of lazy to NOT check it, just because it is new. And please do not tell me that you have never gotten anything new, that did not work out of the box, ever in you life.

I think what Clint is saying is that you'd be surprised (and not in a good way) to see what the SWR is on most rubber duck antennas. It's nothing for them to see a 3:1 SWR regularly (it varies wildly depending on where you are when you transmit) and the HT does fine. In other words, it'd be good advice to check the SWR, but if you're TX/RX signals are okay you can bet the SWR is no worse than what your HT has seen via the rubber duck antenna.

I do not understand what you are saying. Are you saying that if it were the case that the SWR were high because of a defect or something, that it would not do damage do the HT because it is 5W? ...

If you actually looked at the SWR of the rubber duckie antenna that came with your HT, you would more than likely get a shock--it would probably be sky high. Most rubber duckie antennas are little better than dummy loads.

The importance of low SWR is just about always overblown. It is nice to get that SWR low, but you don't have to get it way down to 1.1 to 1--it probably wouldn't be possible anyway. Anything below a 2 to 1 SWR reading is good. It's when you have readings of 3 to 1 or higher that your rig may have problems.

I think it is a good idea to check SWR yearly or when you think there is a problem and write down the results. That way you can compare it to the last time you checked it. When I first got my mag mount, I checked it after moving the mag mount several places on the roof and trunk to see where I would get the best results. Intresting how the result would change, even by moving the antenna a couple of inches. I also check all my rubber duck antennas to see how they fair and get rid of them if they start to go south.

Copyright 2000-2018 eHam.net, LLC
eHam.net is a community web site for amateur (ham) radio operators around the world.
Contact the site with comments or questions.
WEBMASTER@EHAM.NETSite Privacy Statement